Those abilities are too specific and have the same flaws of Rangers of the past. Favored Enemy/Environment works for only in the area or on the target chosen,
Obviously. That's why they are "Favored". They are the things the Ranger has the most direct experience with.
forcing the DM to constantly use that enemy/environment.
First, that's just a ridiculous statement. It doesn't "force" the DM to do anything. Nothing in D&D "forces" the DM or players to do ANything.
Any player who just makes up their Ranger without finding out A) What kind of terrain they'll be playing in, primarily...or at least starting in and B) what kind of creatures are common to that terrain/setting is either being foolish/naive or choosing to play an "outsider" on purpose
"The road-hardened looking ranger from the far off wilderness stalks his way into the tavern. His reasons his own. A scruffy beard of reddish blond hair hugs his jaw and chin belaying his origin as a member of the south-men tribes, immediately in obvious contrast to the dark browns and black haired heads of the locals..."
...which is totally fine, of course and walks in [to the campaign], eyes open, with the knowledge that he has traveled out of his "home environment" to this other land...where his skills MAY apply sometimes against certain foes, but not all of the time. What's wrong with that?
Every once in a while, the party happens to be somewhere where the Fighter, Rogue and Paladin are left awestruck watching the normally quiet Ranger standing in the midst of battefield of slain enemies as he yanks his spear out of the last to fall. The ranger looks at the party and says, "What?! Never had to kill a hobgoblin before?"
Even if the DM tell them of what the best choice is ahead of time, they are stuck with it.
So, is the issue that they only get this 1 terrain? and, in the case of my completely hypothetical list of abilities, 2 favored enemies? We can fix that.
I wouldn't really have a problem if a feature of the class were that you could gain additional favored terrains and all of the bells and whistles that comes with it (Personally, I very much like the idea of having the favored enemy, attack and movement bonuses, etc...dependent on the terrain choice). But it would have to be worked out in some way that made some sense...not, "We traveled through a desert for 3 days, now I have Desert Terrain too!" or "I just fought my first drow! Now I can add dark elves to my favored enemy/quarry too!" nuh-no.
I'm not sure what would be the smoothest way to do that...by level gain and/or length of time/training in a certain area...if you come across (in the game/setting/story) a plot where you begin to encounter drow as the masterminds behind a whole scheme/story arc, and you run into them multiple times and eventually begin hunting them down into the Underdark...then, yeah, at some point in there, as DM, I could see letting you add Drow to your list.
A better way is to make the bonuses more broadly usable.
Forest Ranger
Can apply his Hunter's Quarry to Geographical Lore, Spot, and Stealth checks.
Can craft a Healer kit for half price
Ranged attacks ignore ACC bonus for half cover.
Always consider lightly obscured in an open natural environment and heavy obscured in light obscured natural environments.
Koboldhunter Ranger
Can apply his Hunter's Quarry to Find and Remove Tracks, Intimidate, Spot checks.
Can deploy a Hunter's trap as a action
+2 Ac when being attacked by more than 2 enemies
Can make one attack with a finesse weapon when making a Dodge action
"Better", as you know, is an entirely subjective term. I see nothing in your examples that is inherently "better" than what I proposed.
Making something more "broadly usable" is not really a feature to the archetype of the class, as I see it...or the archetype I was proposing as a default.
A Ranger is NOT just a "Fighter-Thief"...from the Latin "Fighter - best at fighting no matter where he goes" and "Thief - best at sneaking around in any environment".
A Ranger is the best warrior there's going to be in the environment with which they have the most experience and training...which others, even from the same region, do not because they are not out in it all of the time, like the ranger is. Their fighting and hiding skills are all wrapped up in where they are coming from...what they have the experience dealing [hunting, fighting, defending from, avoiding, etc...] with.
Now, that experience changes and grows, of course, so I probably should have thought ahead and written in something that allows for gaining additional Favored Terrains as they leveled up/gained more experience in different areas of the setting. That makes sense.
Not to mention one of what you propose is simply a variant specialty, "X [Kobold]-hunter Ranger", of what I suggested. I don't love/would tweak its implementation, but yeah, that's the idea.
--SD
